Method and apparatus for constructing railway for rubber-wheeled automated guideway transit system

ABSTRACT

A method is provided for constructing railways for a rubber-wheeled AGT system, including: constructing guideways on vertical walls of a light rail vehicle road bed, arranging steel bars at a place where railways will be formed, installing molds around the arranged steel bars; pouring concrete in the molds; and forming, using a pressing unit of a finisher, the railways applied with concrete such that the railways have a same trace as the guideways by moving a finisher along the guideways forming a top surface of the concrete, and curing the concrete.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a divisional of U.S. Ser. No. 13/124,503 filed Apr.15, 2011.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for constructinga railway for a rubber-wheeled automated guideway transit system, andmore particularly, to a method and apparatus for constructing a railwayfor a rubber-wheeled automated guideway transit system, which canminimize construction costs and maximize construction efficiency bymaking it easy to construct the railway that linearly varies andeliminating post processes such as a grinding process and the like byimproving construction precision.

BACKGROUND

Generally, a light rail vehicle system is classified into asteel-wheeled automated guideway transit (AGT) system, a rubber-wheeledAGT system, a linear induction motor (LIM) system, a monorail system, astreetcar light rail transit system, a maglev system, and the like.

Among the light rail vehicle systems, the rubber-wheeled AGT system, asshown in FIG. 5, is designed to use rubber tires as vehicle wheels 50and drive along railways 52 of a railway road bed 51. The driving of thevehicle W is guided by a guideway 54 installed on a vertical wall of theroad bed 51 and guide rollers 55 installed on the vehicle W. Therubber-wheeled AGT system is constructed for a sub-circulation in a cityor connection between a center of a city and a sub-centre of the city.

Needless to say, the railways 52 are constructed by pouring concretearound arranged steel bars.

Since most of the light rail vehicle systems are generally constructedunder the ground or above the ground, the driveway is complicated as theline of the driveway varies to be curved and inclined. The line of thedriveway is basically designed to be straight and planar. However, whenconsidering characteristics of the light rail vehicle system, there is alimitation that the driveway has no choice but to have curves andgradients.

In the related art rubber-wheeled AGT system structured as describedabove, the tires that are the rubber wheels 50 run along the railways52. Therefore, the railways 52 of the light rail vehicle system have tobe constructed to have a proper gradient in accordance with gradient ofthe driveway of the light rail vehicle so that the light rail vehiclecan stably run.

For the rubber-wheeled AGT system, construction for constructing aguideway 54 at both outer sides of the railways 52 is performed.

That is, as shown in FIG. 6, steel bars 56 are arranged at places wherethe railways 52 will be constructed and a drain pipe and a system pipeare installed. Molds are installed around the arranged steel bars 56 topour the concrete.

In order to arrange the steel bars 56, lateral steel bars are processedin advance in the factory in response to a gradient of the driveway inaccordance with a design drawing. These lateral steel bars are carriedto the site and combined with longitudinal steel bars in a rectangularshape. In order to arrange the steel bars 56 in response to the gradientof the driveway, a worker must precisely arrange the steel bars 56 inresponse to the longitudinal and lateral gradients of the driveway.

That is, in the straight driveway, heights of the steel bars are same aseach other. However, as shown in FIG. 7, in the curved driveway, thesteel bars 56 are inclined at a predetermined gradient so that the lightrail vehicle can effectively turn. Therefore, in order to safely drivethe light rail vehicle, it is very important to precisely arrange thesteel bars 56′.

After installing the molds, adhesive such as epoxy resin is applied tothe steel bars 56 and 56′ and the concrete is poured into the molds,after which a top surface of the poured concrete is planarized.

Particularly, a machine is generally used to pour and planarize theconcrete. However, since it is difficult to meet the gradient in thecurved section of the driveway, the work manually meet the gradient.

After the concrete is flattened, flatness (error range is less than 1.2mm/3 m) are measured.

After the concrete is poured and compacted, the concrete is cured for apredetermined time, after which the molds are removed. Subsequently,line grooves are formed using a concrete cutter and the like, afterwhich a leveling layer for the waterproof and height adjustment of theroad bed.

After forming the leveling layer, guideways 54 are installed on thevertical walls of the road bed in accordance with the design drawing.The guideways 54 are installed by measuring heights from the road bed 51and thus the lateral and longitudinal gradients of the driveway can bevery accurately set.

After the guideways 54 are installed, a test vehicle runs based on theroad bed 51 to measure the lateral and longitudinal gradients of therailways 52. When a test result shows that there is an error in thelongitudinal and lateral gradients of the railways 52. The railways 52are ground or a concrete layer is thinly added to the railways 52 to fixthe gradients.

SUMMARY Technical Problem

However, when the steel bars are manufactured in a predetermined size inthe factor in accordance with the design drawing, carried to the site,and arranged, it is difficult to arrange the steel bars in response tothe predetermined lateral and longitudinal gradients and, as shown inFIG. 8, it is impossible to manufacture the steel bars corresponding toa gently curved section (see oblique lines) connecting the straightsection to the curved section having a curvature R. Therefore, it isactually impossible to arrange the steel bars in response to the lateraland longitudinal gradients of the railways.

That is, as shown in FIG. 9, since the gently curved section connectingthe curved section to the straight section has curvatures D1, D2, D3that linearly vary, it is impossible to manufacture the steel barscorresponding to the gently curved section. Therefore, it is impossibleto accurately form the gradients of the railways formed by the concreteapplied around the arranged steel bars.

Further, when the grinding process is performed to fix the gradientsafter pouring the concrete, since the thickness of the concrete layercannot be uniformly maintained, the strength of the concrete isdeteriorated and thus cracked. In addition, thermal wires buried in theconcrete may be exposed to the external side and thus damage.

In addition, since it is also impossible to arrange the molds that areinstalled for the pouring of the concrete in response to the curvaturesand gradients of the gently curved section, the pouring precision of therailways is deteriorated.

Further, when the grinding process is performed in response to thegradients and curvatures design after pouring the concrete, the work hasto manually perfume the measurement and grind the concrete. Therefore,the grinding precision is low and additional costs are incurred. Thiscause the increase of the construction costs of the light railwayvehicle system.

Furthermore, since the curvatures and gradients of the guideways do notaccurately correspond to the curvatures and gradients of the railwaysare accurately formed, the driving performance of the light railwayvehicle is deteriorated and the riding comfort is deteriorated.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in an effort to addressthe above-described problems. It is an object of the present inventionto provide a method and apparatus for constructing railways for arubber-wheeled AGT system, which can accurately form the railways suchthat curvatures and gradients of the railways can accurately correspondto curvatures and gradients of the guideways, thereby improvingconstruction efficiency, reducing construction costs, and improvingdriving performance of a light rail vehicle and riding comfort.

Technical Solution

To achieve the above-described objects, an embodiment of the presentinvention provides a method for constructing railways for arubber-wheeled AGT system, including: forming guideways, along whichguide rollers of a light rail vehicle moves when the light rail vehicleruns along railways; and forming, using a pressing unit of a finisher,the railways applied with concrete such that the railways have a sametrace as the guideways by moving a finisher along the guideways.

In another embodiment, an apparatus for constructing railways for arubber-wheeled AGT system includes a vehicle that is provided withrollers to run along guideways installed on vertical walls of a roadbed; and a pressing unit that is disposed under the vehicle to makelateral and longitudinal traces of railways correspond to lateral andlongitudinal traces of the guideways by pressing and forming a topsurfaces of railway concrete during the running along the guideways.

Advantageous Effects

According to the embodiments, after the guideways are first constructedon the vertical wall of the road bed, the railways are constructed whilerunning along the guideways so that the railways have the same trace asthe guideways. Therefore, the construction of the driveway of the lightrailway vehicle system can be simplified and thus the construction costscan be reduced.

That is, in the related art construction method, the guideways areconstructed after constructing the railways through engineering work.Therefore, the railways have a different trace from the guideways andthus post-process such as the grinding process and the like arerequired. This is time-consuming and costly. However, according to thepresent invention, the construction time and cost for the driveway canbe significantly reduced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features and other advantages of thepresent invention will be more clearly understood from the followingdetailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a method for constructing railwaysfor a rubber-wheeled AGT system according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of an apparatus for constructingrailways for a rubber-wheeled AGT system according to an embodiment ofthe present invention, illustrating an apparatus for steel bars;

FIG. 3 is a schematic front view of an apparatus for constructingrailways for a rubber-wheeled AGT system according to an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic front view illustrating a constructing state ofcurved railways in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a driveway of a conventionalrubber-wheeled AGT system;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a conventional method forconstructing railways for a rubber-wheeled AGT system;

FIG. 7 is a schematic sectional view illustrating an arranged state ofsteel bars in a curved section in FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a schematic view illustrating a gently curved section in acurved section of a driveway;

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of portions A, B, and C of FIG. 8,illustrating a linear gradient.

FIG. 10 is an exploded perspective view of a finisher that is aconstruction apparatus according to another embodiment of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 11 is a side view illustrating an installation state of finishingmembers of FIG. 10.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will now be described indetail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a method for constructing railwaysfor a rubber-wheeled AGT system according to an embodiment of thepresent invention and FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of an apparatusfor constructing railways for a rubber-wheeled AGT system according toan embodiment of the present invention.

Guideways 54 are constructed on vertical walls 53 of a road bed 51 inresponse to a guideway design drawing. Since the guideways 54 arefixedly installed on the vertical walls 53 of the road bed 51 afterperforming a location measurement for the road bed 51, the guideways 54can be precisely constructed in response to the inclined gradient of thedriveway.

That is, unlike railways constructed through civil engineeringconstruction, the guideways 54 is constructed through a railwayconstruction. Therefore, the guideways 54 can be simply installed on thevertical walls 53 in response to the design locations and thus it ispossible to precisely install the guideways 54.

When the guideways 54 are constructed, the construction for the railwaysis performed. For this construction, a finisher 1 that is a constructionapparatus is used. The finisher 1 is designed to make the installationgradient of steel bars 56 coincide with that of the guideways 54 whilerunning along the guideways 54.

The finisher 1 includes a vehicle 3 that is provided with rollers 2 torun along the guideways 54 and a pressing unit 4 that is disposed underthe vehicle 3 to make the lateral and longitudinal trace of the steelbars 56 correspond to the lateral and longitudinal traces of theguideways 54 by adjusting the lateral and longitudinal traces of thesteel bars 56 by pressing and forming top surfaces of the steel bars 56during the running of the finisher 1.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the finisher 1 is identically structured forthe steel bars and the railways (concrete) except for the height of thepressing unit. That is, the pressing unit for the steel bars has aheight H different from a height H1 of the pressing unit for therailways.

Here, the finisher for the steel bars may not be used and the steel barsare arranged in response to the design drawing through a basicconstruction and the gradient of the railways are formed using thefinisher for the railways. Even in this case, the gradient of therailways can be precisely formed. However, when the finisher for thesteel bars is separately used, the construction can be more preciselyperformed.

That is, since the gradient of the railways are adjusted after theconcrete is poured, the installation precision of the steel bars may besufficient through the basic construction and the gradient of therailways can be precisely adjusted using the finisher for the railways.

Needless to say, when the gradient of the arranged steel bars areprecisely formed using the finisher for the steel bars, the thickness ofthe concrete (railways) surrounding the steel bars can be precisely anduniformly maintained and thus the service life of the railways can beincreased.

When the worker arranges the steel bars 56 in response to the designdrawing, the finisher 1 moves at a constant speed along the guideways54, in the course of which the pressing unit 4 installed on the finisher1 moves while pressing and forming the top surfaces of the arrangedsteel bars 56.

As a result, the steel bars 56 have same longitudinal and lateral traces(ingredients) as the guideways 54. Therefore, the steel bars 56 have thesame traces as the guideways 54 even in the curved section.

After the installation of the steel bars is finished, drain pipes andsystem pipes are installed beside the arranged steel bars 56 and theconcrete is applied around the arranged steel bars to construct therailways.

Next, the finish for the railways (the finish having the pressing unitwhose height is adjusted to the height of the railways) 1 is suspendedon the guideways 54 and molds F are installed around the arranged steelbars 56.

After the molds are installed, adhesive is applied on the arranged steelbars 56 and the concrete CT is poured into the molds, after which thefinisher 1 runs along the guideways 54. Then, as shown in FIG. 3, thepressing unit 4 of the finisher 1 presses and forms the top surface ofthe concrete CT and thus the railways having a same trace as theguideways 54 can be constructed.

Particularly, as shown in FIG. 8, linear railway can be constructed evenin a curved section, a straight section, and a gently curved sectionconnecting the straight section to the curved section. Therefore, sincethe guideways 54 are already constructed in response to the gentlecurve, the railways can be constructed to have the same gradient as theguideways 54.

As described above, when the longitudinal and lateral gradients of thesteel bars 56 and the railways are formed as the finisher 1 runs alongthe guideways 54, the railways can be constructed in response to thedesign drawing based on the guideways 54.

When the railways are formed by the finisher, the concrete CT is curedand line grooves are formed.

After the above, the waterproofing process for the road bed levelinglayer is performed and finally the flatness and gradient of the railwaysare inspected, thereby completing the construction of the railways.

The finisher 1 described above may be utilized for a light rail vehicledrive way that is already constructed. For example, the finisher 1 maybe used to inspect if the railways 52 has the same lateral andlongitudinal gradients (traces) as the guideways 54 while running alongthe guideways 54.

That is, since the finisher 1 runs along the guideways 54, it becomespossible to identify the erroneously constructed portions as thepressing unit 4 of the finisher 1 moves along the top surface of therailways 52. Therefore, when the erroneously constructed portion islower than the reference value, the concrete is coated to meet with thereference value, and when higher, the erroneously constructed portion isground to meet the reference value. As described above, the finisher 1may be used in a post process (inspection process).

FIGS. 10 and 11 show a finisher that is a construction apparatusaccording to another embodiment of the present invention.

The finisher includes a vehicle 3 that is provided with one or morerollers to run along guideways 54, an installing rod 5 fixed on anundersurface of the vehicle 3 by a bracket B, and finishing members 6that are fixed on a lower end of the installing rod 5 and formed in astreamline shape in an advancing direction of the vehicle.

The finishing members 6 are installed in at least one line, for example,two lines. The front finishing members 6 are higher than the rearfinishing members 6 and thus a plurality of forming processes areperformed by the finishing members 6 and 6′ at a time during the formingof the railway concrete CT, thereby more uniformly forming the railways.

That is, the front finishing members 6 first form the railways bycutting by a pre-determined amount and the rear finishing members 6′ cutthe rest. That is, the forming is performed through two steps and theforming efficiency can be improved.

Needless to say, the finishing members 6, 6′ may be installed in oneline. In this case, the concrete can be formed through one process.

The streamline shape of the finishing members 6 and 6′ reduces thefrictional resistance as the vehicle 3 runs.

That is, a central portion acutely protrudes to define a front endportion 7 and wing portions 8 are formed by streamlining from thecentral portion so that the concrete flows out along the wing portions8.

Further, as shown in FIG. 10, a pressing unit 9 for pressing theconcrete cut by the front end of the finishing members 6 and 6′ isformed under the finishing members 6 and 6′.

While the present invention has been shown and described in connectionwith the exemplary embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled inthe art that modifications and variations can be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appendedclaims.

1. A method for constructing railways for a rubber-wheeled AGT system,comprising: constructing guideways on vertical walls of a light railvehicle road bed; arranging steel bars at a place where railways will beformed; installing molds around the arranged steel bars; pouringconcrete in the molds; and forming, using a pressing unit of a finisher,the railways applied with concrete such that the railways have a sametrace as the guideways by moving a finisher along the guideways forminga top surface of the concrete; and curing the concrete.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising, after arranging the steel bars, installingdrain pipes and system pipes.
 3. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising, after curing the concrete, line grooves for improvingfrictional force of the concrete.
 4. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising, after arranging the steel bars, pressing the arranged steelbars using the finisher running along the guideways such that thearranged steel bars have a same trace as the guideways.
 5. The method ofclaim 2, further comprising, after arranging the steel bars, pressingthe arranged steel bars using the finisher running along the guidewayssuch that the arranged steel bars have a same trace as the guideways. 6.The method of claim 3, further comprising, after arranging the steelbars, pressing the arranged steel bars using the finisher running alongthe guideways such that the arranged steel bars have a same trace as theguideways.
 7. The method of claim 4, further comprising, after arrangingthe steel bars, pressing the arranged steel bars using the finisherrunning along the guideways such that the arranged steel bars have asame trace as the guideways.